1. Field of the Invention
A bracket assembly is provided for mounting a loose upper deck panel onto a vehicle body, the bracket including a break-away spacer element which is used for properly locating the bracket with respect to the vehicle deck lid.
2. Prior Art
The bracket assembly of the present invention is provided for mounting a loose upper deck panel onto a vehicle body. Conventionally, a loose upper deck panel is used as an exterior body panel on a sedan-like car or similar vehicle. This panel is positioned between the rear vehicle window and the forward edge of the deck or trunk lid. It is necessary that the upper surface of the loose upper deck panel be in alignment with the upper surface of the deck lid so that these two elements will present a continuous surface appearance. If the upper surface of the loose upper deck panel is higher or lower than the surface of the deck lid, an objectional discontinuous surface appearance results.
Conventionally, a loose upper deck panel is mounted on the vehicle after the deck lid has been mounted. Proper positioning of the loose upper deck panel has been achieved in the manufacturing process by means of full-sized fixtures. The fixtures are used to properly locate the panel on the vehicle body. Such fixtures are quite expensive. Additionally, the tolerance range and the accuracy of such fixtures is frequently not as close as desired. Further, such fixtures are bulky and heavy and difficult to handle. This latter point results in relatively inefficient use of the time of production workers.
In accordance with the present invention, a bracket is provided for mounting loose upper deck panels which does not require the use of a fixture for proper location of the panel. This substantially reduces manufacturing costs and tends to improve the quality of the finished vehicle.
Positionment of the brackets is accomplished by providing a break-away spacer element extending rearwardly from the bracket for contact with the forward edge and upper surface of the previously mounted deck lid. Once the bracket has been properly located, it is fastened in place. The break-away nature of the spacer element permits easy removal of this element after the bracket structure is secured in place. The loose upper deck panel is then secured on the bracket structure. This permits lower cost installation plus custom tailoring of each panel which takes into account variances in the tolerances of a vehicle build. All vehicles are not dimensionally identical. Thus, it is desirable to locate panels on the vehicle with reference to the exact physical characteristics of the vehicle which, as above stated, inherently vary from vehicle to vehicle.
A similar locating technique is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 0/117,719, filed Oct. 6, 1987, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,786,094, issued Nov. 22, 1988. The presently disclosed structure differs therefrom in that both a vertical and horizontal positionment is achieved by means of two different locating surfaces and in that the bracket structure includes means for proper positionment of the panel after the bracket itself has been properly located.